Monday, February 21, 2011

Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: Jabberjaw (1976)

If it was possible to give a shark the personality traits of two comedy legends, Jerome "Curly" Howard (Three Stooges) & Rodney Dangerfield, would that shark become a hero? Hanna-Barbera seemed to think so in 1976, with returning creators Joe Ruby & Ken Spears dreaming up such a concoction embodied by Jabberjaw.

With DePatie-Freleng's Misterjaw sharing space with the Pink Panther over on NBC, ABC decided they wanted their own cartoon shark. Unfortunately, Jabberjaw was cancelled after 1 season, as in addition to the titular shark being a hybrid of the two comedians in terms of attitude, he was also saddled with the stigma of his series being another carbon copy of Josie & the Pussycats, moreso than the more likely Scooby-Doo, who'd moved over to ABC that season. Jabber's main gig was being a drummer in a rock group, but we rarely get to see them perform. Maybe it's just as well, as bubblegum pop had been out of style for a while.

You all know the open, I'm sure:

The last time anyone saw Jabber and the band, Cartoon Network rebooted them as a reggae/punk ensemble a few years back in one of their lame interstital skits. If you watch Boomerang, you're bound to find it floating around. Kind of like Jabber himself.